HVAC Hourly Rate Calculator
This free HVAC hourly rate calculator finds the number most shops guess at: your break-even hourly rate — loaded wage plus overhead spread over the hours you actually bill, not the hours your techs are on the clock — and the billed rate that has to sit above it.
Loaded wage
$36.40
Overhead per billable hour
$43.85
Break-even rate
$80.25
Rate at 60% margin
$200.62
If your flat-rate book was built on a lower hourly number than this, every task in it is underpriced. Run your book through the Margin Leak Finder to see the damage.
Frequently asked questions
What is a break-even hourly rate?
A break-even hourly rate is what one billable hour costs your shop to deliver: the tech’s loaded wage (wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, and benefits) plus your overhead spread across the hours you actually bill. Charge less than it and you lose money on every hour before you’ve earned a dollar of profit. It’s the floor under every price in your book.
How do I calculate an HVAC labor rate?
Loaded wage plus overhead per billable hour is your break-even, and break-even divided by (1 − target gross margin) is the labor rate to charge. Loaded wage is the tech’s hourly wage plus payroll burden — taxes, insurance, benefits, usually 25–35%. Overhead per billable hour is your monthly overhead divided by the hours your techs actually bill, not the hours they’re on the clock.
What’s the difference between a labor rate and what you charge per hour?
Your labor rate as calculated here is a cost number: what an hour of tech time costs you, fully loaded, at break-even. What you charge per hour has to sit above that by your target gross margin — billed rate = break-even ÷ (1 − margin). A shop with an $80 break-even that targets a 60% gross margin needs to bill $200 an hour, even if the tech’s wage is a fraction of that.
How many billable hours does a tech really have?
Usually 20–30 hours out of a 40-hour week — drive time, supply-house runs, quotes, callbacks, and shop time eat the rest. That gap is why rates set on 40 clock hours come in too low: your overhead can only be recovered from hours that land on invoices. Count the hours you actually bill and use that number in the calculator.